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Expect a slightly hazy Tuesday, says NEA

This article is more than 12 months old

The National Environment Agency (NEA) has said the air quality for Tuesday (Sept 16) is expected to fluctuate between the high end of the "moderate" range and low end of the "unhealthy" range as winds are forecast to blow from the southeast or southwest.

This is due to the hotspots in Indonesia.

Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) has sent seven water bombing helicopters to areas detected to have increasing number of forest fire hotspots, as its haze has already affected Singapore and Malaysia, a senior BNPB official said on Monday (Sept 15).

"In Riau, we used one Bolkow and one Sikorsky helicopter. We also dispatched 300 troops and police to extinguish the fires.

In South Sumatra, we sent three helicopters, while the remaining two are serving in Central and West Kalimantan provinces," BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

He said that as of Monday (Sept 15), Kalimantan has the largest number of hotspots, with about 630 hotspots detected in central Kalimantan.

More hotspots

In west and south Kalimantan, the hotspots detected were at 268 and 74 respectively.

Mr Sutopo estimated that areas affected by fires in those provinces may expand as the peak of the dry season in the country was estimated to occur in mid October.

As of 6pm on Monday (Sept 15), Singapore's three-hour Pollutant Standard Index (PSI) reading stood at a "moderate" level rated at 64, a drop from the initial 113 rating at 6am that morning.

Sources: Xinhua and National Environment Agency

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